


Up in Smoke

by digitalcatnip



Category: PAYDAY (Video Games)
Genre: Believe it or not!, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Medical Trauma, The Pain Train is back, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 22:37:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13421082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalcatnip/pseuds/digitalcatnip
Summary: The crew is hired to hit up Mercy Hospital and some weird shit starts happening.  Based on the "No Mercy" DLC heist from Payday: The Heist.





	Up in Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as part of a prompt meme with the prompt "I'm sorry about what happened." Originally posted on Tumblr in 2015, mildly edited. 
> 
> One of the last things (maybe THE last thing?) I wrote for the Payday fandom. I couldn't resist going out without some Pain.
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr @cataouatche !

The awkward silence was painful. Hoxton and Wolf were standing in an elevator, climbing the stories of Mercy Hospital painfully slow, which only exacerbated the tension.

“Look, I’m sorry, now can we please talk about this?” Hoxton’s voice was strained.

Wolf did not reply, eyes glued to the screen displaying the current floor. He always looked angry and serious when on a job, but Hoxton could see the extra tightness in his brow, the line behind his eyes that only formed when the Swede was tense.

“Wolf, please.”

“When we’re done,” Wolf growled, never looking at Hoxton.

Hoxton relented. There was no arguing with him when he was like this. Best to let him vent his frustration out on whoever got between him and his money than to keep doing this all day.

Bain began speaking in everyone’s ear as they neared the correct floor. Hoxton’s heart rate skyrocketed, and his hands felt shaky, painfully aware of his equipment hidden underneath his coat and slacks. It was time.

The doors slid open, and he and Wolf stepped nonchalantly out of the elevator. To his left he could see Dallas and Chains emerging from the other elevator, Dallas already beginning to look around for cameras.

Not five minutes later, Hoxton was barking commands at civilians, demanding they lay down and shut up, don’t panic, don’t try to be a hero, just stay put and you’ll be fine. Chains was bent over a computer terminal, rapidly scrolling through page after page of physician profiles as Bain gave him instructions. Hoxton parked himself near a panic button, gun trained on the floor, keeping an eye on the pile of people on the floor near him. Dallas darted from room to room, reminding everyone of what would happen should they try to call or pull out their own guns.

Once Wolf had set up his false sentries (he found it dreadfully boring to have to make them without the firing mechanism – “There is nothing interesting about welding steel together unless I can make it shoot someone,”) and Chains had assisted Bain in finding the correct information, the four ducked into a linen closet and pulled their masks off.

“So we’re doing what now?” Dallas asked Chains.

“Changing into scrubs. You’re finally gonna be a real doctor, Dallas!” He grinned wide.

Dallas scowled, pulling his suit off and replacing it with scrubs. Chains and Dallas had an easy time finding a pair that fit, but Wolf and Hoxton had to scrounge around, and all that would fit over Hoxton’s small body were women’s scrubs. Thus, they were a lovely shade of pink, for which Dallas and Chains did not stop teasing him until Bain scolded them all for taking too much time.

Hoxton tried to catch Wolf’s eye as they walked out of the room. He’d been silent this entire time, and Hoxton was getting anxious. Wolf was never quiet when the mask was on. On a normal day, Wolf would have picked Hoxton up and mussed his hair to all fuck in addition to laughing at his pink scrubs, but today, he was silent.

Hoxton groaned internally. He couldn’t handle this anymore. He grabbed Wolf’s arm and drug him away from Dallas and Chains, who were now being briefed by a female nurse in the exact same scrubs Hoxton was wearing. Wolf looked irritated.

“We’re supposed to be over there,” he said flatly.

“Come on mate, you’re killing me. As soon as we get out of here we’re loading up in the van and going to Florida and I can’t be stuck back there with you for two days like this. They can tell us what’s up in a minute – we need to talk.”

Wolf looked over Hoxton’s head. “We can talk later.”

Hoxton positioned himself in front of Wolf, cornering him against the wall. “No, we can’t. We are not an effective team when you’re like this. Just tell me what is wrong.”

Over Hoxton’s head, Wolf saw Dallas turn around and wave at them, frowning. The bigger man put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “I promise we’ll talk later.”

Something about the look on Wolf’s face eased Hoxton’s mind.

 

“You want us to do what?” Hoxton’s mouth was hanging open.

“Just draw blood from this guy and put it through the centrifuge and then run some tests on the separated plasma and-“

Hoxton threw his hands up. “You lost me at centrifuge. Speak English, Dallas.”

Dallas sighed. “I’ll just…show you.”

The man was laying on the bed in the isolation room, his skin a strange tint of green. Chains was standing far away from him, arms crossed, looking uncomfortable. Wolf was peering curiously at the man’s toes, while Hoxton was trying to pay attention to what Dallas was doing. Dallas mumbled to himself as he inserted the catheter into the man’s arm, taking a syringe from a nearby table and drawing up a vial of blood that seemed thicker and darker than it should have been.

Dallas held up the vial, looking at it. “This doesn’t seem healthy.” He turned to Hoxton. “Your turn. Get a couple vials and put them into the spinny machine down the hall.”

Hoxton was familiar with having his own blood drawn, but he’d never tried to do it to anyone else. Dallas made it look so easy – fuck his medical training. Bain should have told us what the fuck we’d be doing so I won’t have the opportunity to cock this up, Hoxton thought to himself as he pulled the vial away from the needle, breathing easy now that he had managed to get it done without breaking something.

Wolf took his spot at the poor unconscious man’s arm, looking nervous, as the green pallor of the man’s face had only increased, and he seemed to be developing some weird boils. Hoxton was glad he was wearing gloves.

Dallas tried to explain to him what exactly was going on with the ‘spinny machine’ but Hoxton was not here to learn about being a doctor, he was here to do a job and get paid. He pushed his vial into the centrifuge and returned to the isolation room just in time to walk in on Wolf covered in black blood.

“What did you do?” Hoxton yelped, rushing to assist his teammate.

“I think I pulled the entire thing out,” Wolf said softly, pointing to the catheter, which was now at an angle, blood oozing from around the needle.

Hoxton pulled the tube out, grimacing at the syrupy blood that was now seeping out. “Something’s wrong,” he said, “This shouldn’t be doing that. Were you able to actually draw anything?”

Wolf shook his head.

Hoxton turned to get Dallas, coming face to face with the blonde nurse from before.

“Excuse me, I need to take a look at your-“ she stopped mid-sentence at the sight of Wolf.

Hoxton jumped at her, clapping a hand over her mouth before she could scream. “Don’t make a sound, sweetheart, we’re not here for you.” He zip tied her hands together, then lowered her gently to the floor. “But if you make noise I will kill you.”

She looked him in the eye defiantly, and used her knee to press something under her shirt. Sirens went off.

Wolf enacted the failure to stop procedure, and Hoxton pulled his mask over his face and retrieved his own gun. They had mere moments now to get this shit and make it out of here.

Hoxton haphazardly shoved the catheter back in the patient’s arm, trying to ignore the boils that were rapidly growing larger across the man’s feet and hands.

“Come on, come on,” he growled, willing the thick blood to flow faster.

“What the fuck is happening?” Dallas yelled into the room, but his question was answered when he saw the dead nurse, Wolf covered in blood, and Hoxton trying desperately to get the blood to flow.

“Out of the way,” Dallas hissed, grabbing needles and vials from a nearby cabinet and injecting the patient. The blood began to flow more easily, and Dallas put another catheter into the patient’s right arm. It didn’t matter now if they drew too much at once time – the man was obviously about to die.

A loud beeping echoed around the hall, at the exact moment the four heard the elevator door open and heavy footsteps enter the front desk area. Dallas swore, and took the vials they already had and bolted for another centrifuge.

“How many of these do you think we need?” Chains asked, and Hoxton shrugged. “This is probably the weirdest thing we’ve ever done. Why on earth would someone want this?”

“I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it’s not to come up with a cure for AIDS.” Hoxton laughed wryly.

“You ever get the feeling sometimes that we’re not really making the world any better?”

Hoxton made a face. “The world’s fucked no matter what we do. We’re all going to die someday and rot in the ground and the big rock will keep on spinning. No point in trying to improve anything but your own life, ‘s how I see it.”

Hoxton felt Wolf move away from his side and looked over his shoulder at him. “You ok?”

Wolf looked pale, and he coughed loudly into his arm. “Fine, just have a tickle in my throat. Gimme a minute.” He coughed again.

Hoxton was distracted by a police officer walking around the corner. “Here’s the boys in blue,” he muttered, shoving the last vial into his pocket and pulling his gun out from under his shirt.

It felt like an eternity before Dallas had enough vials to bring to Bain. Most of them exploded, (“This machine is completely shit, holy fuck, why do they still use these?”) but Bain was satisfied, and they were backed up against the elevator door, low on ammo. Hoxton’s was smarting, having taken a graze to the arm, Chains gritting his teeth around being tased twice, Dallas reloading his rifle after dispatching a particularly determined cloaker. Wolf was doubled over, hands on his knees, the intensity of his coughs racking his body. Hoxton couldn’t tell if any of the blood on Wolf’s hands was his own.

“Hey, Wolf, are you sure you’re okay?” Hoxton asked, leaning against his friend.

Wolf looked up at him. He had his mask on, but Hoxton could tell something wasn’t right. Wolf’s arms looked a weird colour, and his eyes were bloodshot. He coughed again, and it sounded unnatural.

“Uh, Dallas,” Hoxton said, stepped back from Wolf. “Dallas we have a problem. Something’s up with Wolf.”

Dallas looked over at Wolf and recoiled. “Fuck, he’s…”

The elevator doors opened with a ding, and the crew fell backwards into it, Chains pounding the door close button with all his might. Wolf was struggling to breathe, and Dallas pushed him into a corner, pulling his mask off, looking in his eyes.

“Fuck man, what happened?” Dallas asked, pressing a finger to Wolf’s neck.

Wolf shook his head, unable to speak.

“Well he popped a vein or something trying to draw blood,” Hoxton answered, the words coming out harsher than he intended. Wolf shot him a look.

“Did you get any in your mouth?” Dallas asked.

Wolf shrugged. It had happened so fast, he didn’t remember.

“We’re gonna get you help, alright buddy? As soon as Alex picks us up we’re gonna get you he-“

Dallas was cut off by a loud boom from outside, as the world shook violently, and the elevator ground to a halt. Chains started to swear, but that was when the elevator cables groaned eerily, and then snapped, and everyone was thrown to the floor as the car screamed down to the basement level.

Hoxton opened his eyes, his head feeling like it was splitting open, but he was alive, and it seemed everyone else was too. Chains was already up, wrenching open the elevator door. Dallas was leaning over Wolf, who was looking worse by the second. He had stopped coughing, but his breaths were shallow and wheezing, and he wasn’t focusing, even when Dallas shone a light in his eyes.

“Come on Wolf, stay with me just long enough to get out of here,” Dallas was pleading.

The sound of an airplane screeching through the sky overhead filled everyone’s ears, followed by another earthquake and an ear-splitting boom.

“Guys, you have got to get out of there, they’re fucking bombing the building!” Bain yelled in their ears.

“Holy shit,” Chains breathed, looked down the destroyed hospital hallway, equipment abandoned in the halls. There appeared to be someone in the hall, moving slowly.

“Hey, you, get the fuck down!” Chains yelled, flicking on the flashlight on his shotgun. The person turned to look at him, and Chains nearly dropped his gun. The woman’s face was sloughing off long strips of skin, one arm completely severed, and now she was screeching and moving more quickly than she should be able to toward the elevator. Chains removed her head with well-aimed buckshot.

“What the fuck was that?” Hoxton asked, stomach in his chest. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Whatever is going on, we need to get the fuck out of here,” Dallas said, voice strained as he lifted Wolf onto his shoulders and carried him out of the elevator.

They sprinted down the hall as fast as they could, dodging around gurneys and IV racks. Some of the tables had bodies on them, and Hoxton could have sworn they were moving. Something was very wrong here.

They were fifty feet from the door when Wolf tapped Dallas on the shoulder, whispering in his ear to put him down.

“No, you’re coming out of here with us even if I have to drag you,” Dallas said through gritted teeth. Wolf was heavy, and Dallas’ lungs didn’t work as well as they used to.

Wolf did not argue.

When the four stepped out of the front doors of the hospital, they were stunned by what they saw. Military planes flew overhead, dropping fire not just on the hospital, but across the entire city. Everywhere they looked they saw destruction.

“Holy shit…” Dallas breathed.

Alex touched down in the middle of the road in front of them, pushing the doors to the helicopter open hastily. “Get the fuck inside!”

Dallas shoved Wolf in, pulling up Hoxton and Chains behind him.

In the air, Dallas was shoving needles into Wolf’s arm, trying to get him hydrated, trying to get him stabilized. His heart rate was off the chart, and he was hot to the touch.

Wolf pushed Dallas away, and grabbed Hoxton’s ankle, tugging weakly at his friend’s pants. Hoxton slid down onto the floor, knees barely touching the metal before Wolf had pulled him down onto his chest. Hoxton could hear his heart pounding.

“I’m sorry,” Wolf whispered. “We’re not gonna get to talk.”

“Shut up, yes we are.”

Wolf wheezed, and Hoxton was pretty sure it was supposed to be a laugh. “Nah.”

“You’re just sick, Dallas’ fix you and then we’ll get you into a hospital and you’ll be fine-“

Wolf cut him off by putting a finger as close to Hoxton’s mouth as he could without touching him. “Shut up.”

Hoxton shut up.

Wolf continued hugging Hoxton, though his grip was getting weaker. “I’m sorry I was mad. It wasn’t your fault.”

“It’s nothing, mate.”

“I forgive you.”

“Thanks.” Hoxton was having a hard time talking.

“To make up for dying on you, you can have all my money.”

“You’re not going to die on me,” Hoxton hissed.

Wolf wheezed again.

“You’re not going to die on me!” Hoxton said, louder, digging his nails into Wolf’s arms.

Wolf patted Hoxton on the head. “Don’t miss me too much.”

Hoxton felt Wolf stop breathing.

 

Dallas threw Hoxton off of Wolf, pressing on his neck, pushing on his chest, desperately trying to get Wolf to respond. The minutes crawled by, when finally Dallas stopped CPR, and sat up. Slowly, he put his headset back in his ear. “Bain, we lost Wolf.”

Hoxton couldn't breathe.

Chains slapped him hard on the back, but it didn't help him catch his breath.

Dallas yanked the oxygen mask out of the ceiling of the helicopter and pushed it painfully onto Hoxton’s face. “Hold yourself together, please, I can’t have you checking out on me too.”

Hoxton was still catching his breath when he noticed movement behind Dallas.

“What the fu-“ Chains was hissing, recoiling away from Wolf’s body on the bottom of the helicopter.

Wolf sat up, coughing loudly, unnaturally, his pallor a horrible, inhuman colour.

Dallas scrambled backwards, practically in Hoxton’s lap. “Holy shit, holy shit, why is he moving,”

Wolf looked at Dallas, his eyes yellow and dilated.

Hoxton lost control of his breathing again.

“Chains, fucking, Jesus fucking Christ please shoot him!” Dallas was screeching, trying to climb up the side of the helicopter.

Hoxton’s instinct was to scream at Chains not to shoot his friend, but one look at Wolf’s face told him that Wolf wasn’t in there anymore.

Chains was shaking, clumsily reaching behind him for a weapon, trying not to make any noise. His fingers closed around Wolf’s shotgun, and he stood up slowly, taking aim. He caught Hoxton’s eye, tossed his head to the left, signaling the Brit to move out of the way. Hoxton obliged.

“This is some fucked up shit,” Chains mumbled, as he put a slug through the back of Wolf’s head, dropping him onto the floor.

Hoxton’s chest was on fire, gasping for air, unable to process what just happened.

Dallas put an arm around him, trying to stop the shaking. “Hey, you’re fine, you’re fine,” he was saying, but Hoxton felt a million miles away.

Dallas held Hoxton to him as they made their way through the sky toward Bain, Hoxton staring out the window, watching the city go up in flames below him.


End file.
